Overwintering Hot Pepper Plants. Update. 11.20.22

 This "Early Jalapeño" plant didn't grow large in the garden, so I had left the leaves on it when I dug it up to overwinter.  Even though I had washed the roots pretty thoroughly, I noticed now it had aphids.

After spraying with the Dr Earth herbal spray, I reconsidered and cut off all of the leaves.  There are no peppers on this plant to ripen, so I probably should let it go dormant.

After trimming.

Before trimming.

Meanwhile, the plants I left leaves and peppers on, to ripen, still look pretty good.  No aphids, gnats, or whitefly that I can see.  The two larger plants are Thai Dragon and the smaller on is Tabasco.

It's still early, many months to go.  It's an interesting experiment.  It would be nice to get a jump start on peppers next year.  And also, potentially, more productivity from the overwintered plants.  

More Bulbs. 11.17.22

 Today I was at the hardware store, and saw these bulbs for half price.  So I bought them and planted them.

Overwintering Pepper Plants. Update. 11.17.22

 I check the pepper plants every two days.  They have indoors now for 3 to 4 weeks.  A few are in the sunroom, to ripen remaining peppers (Thai, Tabasco, a Serranno).  The others are in a 50s to 60s cool bright room.

I am moving the rest into the cool, bright room too.  I want them to be dormant.

Here are a Tabasco (left ) and Serrano (right)

They look about the same as when I transplanted them.  The stems are still green.  The peppers are about the same.  That's fine.  I want dormancy, not growth.

The Serrano had tiny fuzzy things on the soil.  I think they are whiteflies.  Not very active in the coolness.

I sprayed the plant and soil with this stuff.

Most of the fuzzy things disappeared immediately.  There were a few remaining, so I sprayed with some old Safer brand neem spray too.

Here are some of the other pepper plants.  Left to Right, Cayenne, Banana, Early Jalapeño.

The Cayenne is pushing a few buds.  So is the Banana.  Not much, but you can tell they are alive.  The stems are still green.  I didn't defoliate the Jalapeño.  It's mostly just sitting there, but the nodes are a little knobby, like some buds want to show.

Closeup of the Cayenne.

So far, so good.  They still have a long way to go.

Saving Cucumber Seeds. 11.17.22

 I kept a mature bush pickle cucumber fruit to save seeds.  It became very large.  To save seeds, the fruit needs to ripen and start to soften, and lose its green color,

While cleaning the garden, I also found a Chinese cucumber.  I didn't know it had any fruits.  The seed was from an old packet, and only one germinated.  These were in an out of the way location in the garden. I will save that seed too.

Both look the same when sliced open.  Despite being over-ripe, the insides had a fresh, pleasant, melon scent. 

The seeds get scooped out, along with some juice and loose flesh.  I place the mixture into a jar with some water, and allow it to ferment a few days.  The fermentation removes the seed casing.  Then they'll be rinsed and allowed to dry. 

Saving Eggplant and Tabasco Pepper Seeds. 11.12.22

 This eggplant was highly productive this year.  I was amazing.  So I saved seeds.

For eggplant, I didn't ferment.  I scooped out as many seeds as I could, and rinsed them off in a sieve with water.  Then I let them dry on a paper towel for a few days, then made a paper envelope to store them in.

I decided to save seeds from my Tabasco pepper plant as well.  This year my Tabascos were only minimally productive.  I'd like to grow enough to make Tabasco sauce.  I cut open a Tabasco pepper and removed the seeds.  They are drying in a bowl and will go into a paper envelope soon.

Leaf Collection #2. 11.12.22

 Today I collected another truckload of maple and liquidamber leaves from a complete stranger's yard.  I had permission.  

I spread these about 6 inches deep, in the meditation garden / border.  The remaining leaves from last year were almost gone.  The did an excellent job keeping weeds away,  The soil there has wonderful tilth from two years so far of thick leaf mulch.  This area has lots of bulbs under ground, a growing forsythia hedge, Itoh peony, lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, rhubarb, and some other perennials.  Now that area is ready for winter and next year.

I'm estimating I'll need about five more truckloads, based on what it took to cover this area.

Planting More Flower Bulbs. 11.12.22

 These were on sale at Fred Meyer.

I planted the daffodils in the meditation garden.  Who knows how close they are to other buried bulbs.  Does it matter?  About 20% of the daffodil bulbs were dried out and crunchy.  I discarded those.

Tulips are deer and vole favorites.  I planted them in a container that previously held garlic, then cucumber.  Not sure if it is bottomless, but at least it's sheltered from deer.  I mixed the soil with some container soil mix that I'm not certain is the best.  Hope by mixing with native soil, any problems are resolved.   I gave them some organic bulb fertilizer. 

The plan fir next year, is in Maybor June I will plant therapeutic marigolds over the tulips.  The marigolds can bloom and warm the soul, and the foliage and roots can be used for preventive nematocide treatment.

I planted about 1/4 of the crocus bulbs in the garden border.  Probably plant another 1/4 in the border and the rest in the meditation garden.

Daffodils and crocuses seem to survive well here.  Tulips need more TLC.  They are worth it.

Don't Do This. 11.12.22

 The other day, I moved this board to a different area of the garden to use as edging.  I didn't noticecthe nails.  If I saw them, I would have removed them.

The wound is less painful now.  No sign of infection so far.  Thankful for antibiotics and tetanus shots.

The nails are all removed now.  Inspection did not find more.  The blood is cleaned up.

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The Collecting Of The Tree Leaves. 11.7.22

 This morning, while walking Rufus in town, I encountered some homeowners raking their leaves.  I offered to help, in return for the leaves.  I quickly filled the pickup bed.

The areas that I left covered with last year's leaves did great.  No weeds at all, and only sporadic watering. The leaf mulch lasted until now, but is now thinning quite a bit.  My goal is to keep those areas maintenance free next year too.

The truckload of leaves made a good start.  It's more work than I should be doing, but only once a year.

Some of these areas were too shady fir the perennials I had there, so I removed those to transplant to a sunnier spot.

It needs just a little tidying up, but basically this area is done until this time next year.  I'm really pleased this much is done now.

Fig Tree Starts. 11.7.22

 On Nov 29 last year, I removed this offshoot from my original Hardy Chicago fig tree.

It didn't have much root.  Barely any. 

Still, I wanted a new tree to replace one that was killed by voles, so I planted it, gave it some water, and kept it mulched.  Here is that tree today.

I'm pretty impressed with the resilience of fig trees. This one has the potential to produce a small number of figs next year. Today I renewed the leaf mulch around it.  This tree is settled in for the sinter.

I had also cut a few cuttings, dormant wood about a foot long and half inch diameter. I stuck them into the ground in what was to become a tomato raised bed.  No other care, not even water althpugh the closest emitter was, maybe, 18 inches away.  It did have a cardboard mulch.

Here is one cutting now. I dont think the others grew.

This start could be planted in the ground now, and potentially make some good progress next year.